Another Hamid Karzai gaffe, more U.S. damage control

As it has so many times before, Washington is responding to a bizarre allegation from Afghan President Hamid Karzai by taking a line from “The Wizard of Oz” — pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

This time, Karzai accused the U.S. of helping the Taliban stage bombing attacks as a way to justify the presence of American and international troops. The White House called the claim “categorically false.” Top military leaders brushed it off, saying it doesn’t reflect the real nature of U.S.-Afghan relations. There wasn’t much concern, at least publicly, about whether Karzai’s latest salvo might derail plans to keep a U.S. military presence in Afghanistan beyond the 2014 withdrawal.

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In fact, American leaders in Kabul and Washington have almost fallen into a routine of dealing with Karzai’s sometimes befuddling remarks, which have included accusations that the U.S. and Iran were backing electoral rivals; that Washington wanted to “divide” Pakistan and weaken Afghanistan; and that Karzai himself wanted to take up with the Taliban.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who was in Kabul on his first trip to the battlefield since being sworn in to office last month, went so far as to defend the Afghan president after Karzai accused the U.S. of colluding with the enemy that has taken more than 2,100 American lives over more than a decade.

“I know these are difficult issues for President Karzai and the Afghan people,” Hagel said. “I was once a politician, so I can understand the kind of pressures that especially leaders of countries are always under. I would hope, again, that we can move forward, and I have confidence that we can and will deal with these issues.”

And in a briefing from Ramstein Air Base in Germany en route back to Washington on Monday, Hagel said he trusts that Karzai will continue to work with the U.S.

“I’m confident after being here for two days and getting a renewed sense of commitment both from the Afghans and our partners — coalition partners, United States — that we’re on the right path,” he said.

Karzai went on national television Sunday after two deadly blasts in Kabul and Khost. The bombings, Karzai said, “showed that they are at the service of America and at the service of this phrase: 2014. They are trying to frighten us into thinking that if the foreigners are not in Afghanistan, we would be facing these sorts of incidents.”

But even though the WikiLeaks cables of 2010 included State Department descriptions of Karzai as emotionally erratic and paranoid, observers said they thought there was a method at work.

“I don’t think he’s crazy,” national security analyst Peter Bergen told POLITICO. “I don’t think it was a devious, well-thought-out strategy” to make these claims. But it highlights that “he has a very difficult and complex job.”